The 30-year-old slugger summed it up this way: "Just being able to stay inside the ball, mainly. My hands are going to the ball better.

"Lower half is being pretty quiet, which is good for me."

The problems began for Gonzalez in Fort Myers, Fla., in spring training with the Boston Red Sox. An MVP-caliber 2011 season begat higher expectations for 2012, and his coping mechanism became his swing. Several bad habits crept in.

"I never really had a good swing since the start of spring," Gonzalez said.

The expectations escalated when the Dodgers acquired Gonzalez from the Red Sox in a nine-player megatrade Aug. 25. One of Gonzalez's problems was he tried to tailor his swing to fit Fenway Park's unusual dimensions.

It worked well enough for him to hit .318 with a .502 slugging percentage in Boston this year, but it wasn't going to work at Dodger Stadium.

"I came in with a swing that wasn't really made for this park or for this league," Gonzalez said. "It was beneficial for me at the time in Boston. One of the first things that we did was try to get back to my old swing."

That process took time - 21 games to be exact.

Here's the irony: One facet of Gonzalez's Fenway-friendly swing was it trained him to turn on inside fastballs.

In his first at-bat as a Dodger, Gonzalez turned on a pitch from Miami's Josh Johnson and crushed it just inside the right-field foul pole for a home run.

Talk about setting the bar high. Gonzalez didn't hit a home run for another 25 games, then he broke out with a pair of home runs in a Sept. 23 game at Cincinnati.

And yes, he looked comfortable, as if he never left the National League West.

"The Rockies, the Padres all have new (pitchers)," Gonzalez said. "The Giants have fairly similar guys, but it's all about me and my swing. If my swing's right, I'm going to take at balls, I'm going to swing at strikes, I'm going to put up good numbers. If it's not, I'm not."

Also ...

Gonzalez's double in the sixth inning was his 47th this season, breaking a personal single-season best. Gonzalez hit 46 doubles with the San Diego Padres in 2007. ... Dodgers starters have a 1.24 ERA in their past 10 games dating to Sept. 21. The Dodgers began play Monday with the best earned-run average of any pitching staff in the National League (3.36). ... A.J. Ellis drew a walk for the first time since Sept. 9. Ellis leads the Dodgers with 63 bases on balls this season.